1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and systems for delivering and organizing electronic messages. More specifically, the present invention relates to methods and systems that may be used to reduce the computing resources necessary for delivering a single message to multiple recipients and to improve the organization of responses to the message.
2. Background and Relevant Art
Traditional electronic messaging systems are a huge improvement over the paper analogues they augment or replace. By reducing the human and material resources necessary to transcribe, photocopy, and distribute paper communications, electronic messaging allows for resources to be focused on core business objectives rather than wasted on overhead. However, the contribution of prior art electronic messaging systems can be characterized as replacing physical inefficiencies with electronic ones.
Specifically, prior art electronic messaging systems distribute a single message to multiple recipients by duplicating the message and delivering a copy to each recipient. The two major inefficiencies that result include both processing time to duplicate the message and storage space to hold the copies. For example, consider what occurs when prior art systems deliver a three kilobyte message to all three thousand employees of a particular business. The prior art electronic messaging systems must dedicate processing resources to duplicate the three kilobyte message three thousand times, producing some nine megabytes of data that must be stored in the computer systems of the business.
Admittedly, with today's computer systems, duplicating a file three thousand times and storing nine megabytes of data are minor concerns, when viewed in isolation. However, several other factors render this drain on computer resources more serious. For example, electronic messaging systems operate on many individual messages. Duplicating a single message three thousand times is the equivalent of receiving three thousand messages at once. When combined with the normal operating conditions of the electronic messaging system, a sudden requirement to process three thousand messages can dramatically reduce system performance.
This problem is further complicated when recipients begin replying to widely distributed electronic messages. Because replies may be difficult to understand in isolation, the original message is often copied with the reply to avoid misunderstandings. Furthermore, the replies are often distributed to all original recipients, multiplying the initial nine megabytes of data by a factor of two and adding another three thousand messages the size of the reply.
However, copying the original message with a reply provides only minimal context. By its very nature, recipients will read and respond to a widely distributed electronic message over a substantial period of time. Some recipients may be out of the office, for hours at a meeting or days on vacation, when certain electronic messages are delivered. Some recipients will be involved in other work when the message is delivered and postpone reading and/or response to a more convenient time. Others, however, will read and respond immediately. This response time delay leads prior art electronic messaging system to intersperse responses with unrelated messages received in the interim. Moreover, if a specific electronic message generates a large amount of discussion, it may be advantageous to divide an initial topic into several subtopics. However, prior art electronic messaging systems provide only limited support for organizing electronic messages by topic, such as rules for sorting messages by sender.
Furthermore, electronic messaging typically provides only limited formatting capabilities. Many messages, however, require fairly sophisticated presentation. Enhanced formatting may be important as a means of efficiently communicating information. Perhaps a table of data quickly conveys the message that would otherwise require significant amounts of text. Alternatively, higher degrees of formatting generally connote an increased level of importance or authority. The effect of requiring a high degree of formatting often leads to electronic messages containing attachments of word processing documents that provide the increased formatting capabilities. Unfortunately, the formatting information of a document may contribute as much to a document's size as the text of the document itself and introduces a certain amount of overhead. Thus, three kilobytes is an extremely conservative size for an email message with an attached word processing document. It is not uncommon for even simple word processing documents to be in the range of ten to twenty kilobytes. A twenty kilobyte attachment sent to three thousand recipients with a single reply that includes the original message represents 120 megabytes of data—for a single communication. The problem may be at its worst when a fifty kilobyte image or 100 kilobyte program is involved.
Because the copies are electronic, little consideration is given to the resources that are required for delivering electronic messages. It is a simple matter for the average person to recognize the effort in physically duplicating something three thousand times. Few if any would even consider making a short (or even humorous) comment in a paper system that requires three thousand copies of the comment, three thousand duplicates of the original message, time to attach the comment to the duplicates, and manual distribution to three thousand people. However, in an electronic messaging context, senders give little consideration to the computing resources necessary for processing widely distributed messages and the possible impact of replies.
Nevertheless, some prior art electronic messaging systems provide ill-suited solutions to the processing and storage problems introduced by multiple recipient messages. For example, public folders and newsgroups both provide a mechanism for placing information in a common area where it can be accessed by multiple requesters without being duplicated for each. While newsgroups and public folders provide a topical arrangement of information, they lack the ability to direct messages to an easily modifiable group of recipients. Specifically, newsgroups and public folders require a user to post information and then depend on those who are interested in the topic to periodically check for new messages. This operation renders newsgroups and public folders virtually useless for ad hoc electronic discussions.
Moreover, newsgroups and public folders provide limited capabilities for controlling access to posted information. For example, access to newsgroups and public folders can be controlled by users, but access cannot be tailored on a message by message basis. This limitation imposes a need for newsgroups and public folders to be created based on both topic and anticipated distribution, leading to a proliferation of newsgroups and public folders that must be checked periodically for new messages.
Finally, growing enthusiasm for the Internet further contributes to the problems in the prior art because an increasing number of people have access to electronic messaging services. This increased access enhances the ability to interact with one another and increases the likelihood that a single message will be meaningful to multiple recipients, further aggravating processing and storage problems. The prior art demands either sacrificing performance, limiting distribution, or designing systems to support the inefficiencies at their peak demand.